"He will come to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened." Isaiah 35: 4,5

As Orthodox Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ is the Creator of All things, the Life, and the Light of the World. In today’s appointed passage from the Beloved Disciple, John the Evangelist, we learn how Jesus healed a man born blind from birth. This qualification, "born blind from birth," is most important, for this is the only blind man healed in the Gospels who was "blind from birth," and moreover, it has a profound theological implication: that all of humanity is born into the fallen state of a “spiritually blind” world.

Clearly, someone born blind is not guilty of sin. They never had a chance to exercise their free will, so they could not have sinned. Yes, sin and sickness are often linked, and our sinful actions can lead to emotional, spiritual, and physical sickness as well as a sense of alienation from God, our fellow man, creation, and the attendant marginalization from society; but sickness is not always tied to sin. Sometimes, bad things happen to good people, and then, we wrestle with the theological concept of Theodicy which basically is: If God is Righteousness, how can He allow good people to suffer?

           As Orthodox Christians, we must always remember that the world, the cosmos, has suffered from the consequences of the First Man's sin when Adam deliberately broke fellowship with God, and as a microcosm of the universe, being composed of the clay of the earth and the celestial breath of God--a composite of the material and spiritual--the First Man, the Steward and Crown of God's creation, took the cosmos downward with him into the dizzying spiral of the vortex of separation and alienation that cuts off humanity and creation from the Source of Truth, Light, and Life. Here, in a nutshell, is Orthodox Cosmology and Orthodox Anthropology, and this leads to Orthodox Christology and salvation.

In today's passage, John the Divine portends that Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man, the expected Messiah, has come to deliver fallen humanity from their ailments and save all who believe and accept Him. He has come for all humanity who, through the First Man, suffer from the tragic consequences and stain of sin—both those born physically blind through no fault of their own and those who willfully choose to be "spiritually" blind. For, indeed, as this world operates on the spiritual and material planes, so does blindness operate on these two planes.

           As the New (Second) Adam, Jesus, as the Only Sinless One, has come to redeem us from the sin of the Old (First) Adam. As Perfect God, Jesus Christ, assumes our fallen humanity perfectly in order to redeem us perfectly and raise us up, restore us, and reconcile us to Him, and through Him, to one another and creation. Jesus has come to cleanse us, heal us, unite us to Him and one another, to be sure, but He does this in a very human, and touching way--a natural way. 

As he Fashioned Adam from the clay of the earth and breathed into him His Divine and Quickening Spirit, so He Re-Fashions His creatures that allow themselves to be the clay in the Hand's of the Potter. He does this not in an abstract way, but in a very, real, engaging, and touching way--a personal way; for although HE IS GOD, Jesus Christ is also Person. Personhood gets to the heart and profound mystery of the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit +), in Whose Image we have been fashioned for eternal Fellowship.

           Thus, as both God and Man, He is also the very real, historical Person of Jesus Christ, Who Personally reaches, engages, acknowledges, and authenticates our personhood. We cannot be saved in the abstract. Jesus did not come to save some nebulous concept of humanity. He has come to save you and me. He did not just come to save the mythical and categorical blind; He came to save this particular blind man, this man "born blind from birth." This is powerful and most instructive. God acts, but we must respond. We must hear and obey the Word that created the Universe by a Word.

As in the Beginning, His Word created, so in the present, His Word re-creates, re-fashions, and redeems. His Word revivifies, restores, and reconciles. However, we must freely choose and respond to His Word--the manifestation and operation of His Ecstatic Love. We are not like the dumb beasts of the earth. We are rational beings created in His Image and Likeness, and therefore, we are free, for God is Free. He respects our freedom, therefore—i.e., the divine seed implanted in us. Freely, He gives; freely, we receive. Freely we must respond.

           Unfortunately, and consequently tragically, some of us do not really want to be healed. There were, lamentably, some blind men who preferred to live with what they knew--their constant companion named blindness. To choose to be healed of any malady requires an exercise in Faith. Some people shun exercise, sacrifice, and effort.

Afterall, it is easier to absolve oneself of one's responsibility and rely upon the alms of others. It requires less effort, and there are studies to this day that validate that there are many poor people dependent upon charity who have less stress and lower blood pressure and cholesterol due to that lack of stress. So, frankly, for this reason, Jesus would sometimes ask those in the Gospels: "Do you truly want to be healed."

           Hence, Jesus respected their free will, and He respects our free will. Like any physician or teacher, the True Physician and Teacher knew that no matter how talented, educated, and dedicated you are, if someone does not want to be healed or taught, they will not take the medicine or do the homework. Knowing the frailty of human nature perfectly as the Creator and intimately as Man, He instructively and progressively teaches and guides this man, this person, who was blind from birth.

The blind man listens and obeys Jesus. Jesus mixes the Life-Giving essence of His Spittle with the clay of His earth and applies this spiritual and material salve upon the eyes of His Beloved creation. He reaches out, ecstatically, as the Embodiment of Love, and as Love is compelled to do, and touches the blind man. Jesus is sacramentally present, facing this man, and looking into his eyes. The blind man allows the application. Then, Jesus sends him to the Pool of Siloam to wash.

           The blind man listened and obeyed the Word of God Incarnate and present. Indeed, he had to walk a great distance to this specific pool. He must have known that he would be a spectacle to behold, and yet, he did go and do what Jesus told him, nevertheless. Like a good student or patient, he washed himself as instructed. The Fathers of the Church see this as a reference to baptism in which the priest reads the prayer over the baptism fount: "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your doings before My Eyes."

Cleansing must proceed healing, just as a doctor cleans the wound before suturing. The blind man obeys the Eternal Logos' Word and is cleansed. He covers himself in the waters. He dies to the old, and he buries the old, and he emerges, cleansed, and renewed, from the darkness (in the water) into the Light and resurrects bodily and spiritually from his condition. His eyes are spiritually opened and physically opened. He was blind, but now he sees, and now he is healed.

           He listened to the Word of God, He obeyed the Word of God, he repented, he acted upon the Word of God, and he was thereby healed. That is the formula for true and lasting health; but because he obeyed and allowed the Son of God Who was sent by God the Father to send him to the pool called Sent, the saving works of God were revealed in him. He became God's instrument to reveal His Glory and God's mouthpiece to proclaim what God has done for him. He was blind; but due to God’s Grace, he now sees.

           Then as the Good Physician, Jesus follows up on His patient, and finds him. The lost blind man is now found by God's Grace embodied, and he is granted to see the Face of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, His Creator, and His Saviour. He has seen the True Light. Thus, there are two salient lessons in this beautiful passage of hope and redemption:

The first is to those who--in spite of their condition--believe and accept Jesus Christ and are, consequently, healed and saved and given the Vision of the Light and now see purely; and the second is to those who have everything materially, but are willfully poor spiritually, and, therefore, they are spiritually blind.

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ: The first see the Light and are saved. The second do not see the Light, and they remain in darkness. God loves us, and has come for us, but we must choose to believe and accept, and fervently desire to see His Light and become children of the Light.

The choice is ours. God has called us and come for us, but we must respond, come to Him, and allow Him to touch, cleanse, and transfigure us by His all-perfecting Grace in His Church that He has established for this very purpose. In this way, we, too, can be “sent” to reveal the saving works of God revealed in us.

                                   Yours in the One Who is the Light,

                                                                                              †Father Jim